Don't Fall In Love With Your Book....

Anyone enthusiastic about their book (script or other project they've hewn into being from their imaginations and bare hands) will assuredly express 'love' for their work. A creator should 'love' the work. It's that love that keeps us going and hopefully pushes us to make it the very best it can be within our power.

That said, the trick within getting the work done and doing so at a high level means authors can't 'fall in love' with the work. Certainly an author's novel be it the first or the fifty-first will be their 'baby'. But to make the work worth someone paying for it an author cannot be 'enamored' of their book.

There's a serious difference between 'loving' your work and 'being in love' with it. When an author loves their work, they enjoy the process including the rewarding and difficult parts. When an author is in love with the work, they are too close too it and cannot view neither the process nor the work objectively. Objectivity is the most difficult part of being a creator. Yeah, the author/creator loves the piece they're creating, but the time for 'tough love' comes all too soon when the finishing process begins.

During the Editing-Rewriting period, an author must be prepared to be 'brutal' as whole sections of a draft may need to be cut because they interfere with the flow of the story, take the plot off in an undesirable direction or they just plain suck. It happens. Those cuts are especially painful when it comes to parts of the story the author is 'in love with'. Well, to get the work where it needs to be, those parts have to be dumped like a crazy date in a parking lot!

Another critical point during the finishing process is the cover design. Now, there is no 100% set way to set up a cover. But from a design and marketing standpoint, there are some things that can't be gotten around. The title font doesn't have to be elaborate, but it must represent the theme of your story. Remember, that font will always be associated with that book so choose wisely. Cover art, again it is not a requirement for elaborate cover art, but in some way it needs to represent the story written. I recently dealt with an author who was a classic example of this phenomenon. It was so bad, the person seemed deluded. No real thought was put to the crafting of their story, no thought put towards the cover design and no thought put to the marketing materials.

It is understandable that not every author has a background in writing, design and marketing. But granted, though there are now insanely cheap services which allow quick cover design work and book trailers complete with basic animations and music. Those are great resources for authors with little means. However, considerable thought needs to go into how the book is presented and marketed. If an author has no experience in these areas, it's no shame to liason with those who do and hire them. Obviously, the author should listen carefully to their expertise but keep in mind the vision intended. Then too there's the expense. 'A perfect match' is always expensive! So 'close enough' may work just fine.

Lastly, the author should not delude themselves as to how 'good or bad' the finished product is. Sometimes, the finished work is a homerun right out of the box but isn't well received by potential fans. Sometimes it's a flaming pile of maggoty-dog-poop and it captures audiences imagination. One never knows how any of this will turn out. But long as the author does their best to put out the best work possible the odds are raised in their favor for success. That comes from loving the work, not being in love with it!

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